Bergdahl on way back to U.S.: Pentagon

WASHINGTON, June 12 (Xinhua) -- The Taliban-released U.S. service man Bowe Bergdahl has left the hospital in Germany and is scheduled to arrive in San Antonio on Friday where he will resume his recovery, a Pentagon spokesman confirmed on Thursday.

According to John Kirby, Press Secretary of the U.S. Defense Department, Bergdahl left Ramstein Air Base Thursday afternoon and will continue his reintegration process at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston.

The U.S. government exchanged five Taliban leaders held at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility for Bergdahl. U.S. special operations forces picked up the sergeant in eastern Afghanistan on May 31.

U.S. medics in Afghanistan treated Bergdahl at Bagram Airfield, and he continued on to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, Kirby said, adding that so far, Bergdahl has not spoken publicly about his time in captivity or about the circumstances that led to him being taken hostage.

As Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has made clear, Kirby said, " our first priority is making sure that Sergeant Bergdahl continues to get the care and support he needs."